There is a desire for high efficiency motors that minimize operating electricity costs, especially in high duty cycle and or high power applications. Unfortunately, most motors in widespread use have less than optimal efficiency and suffer from a number of losses including resistive, eddy current and hysteresis. One motor construction that can be utilized to reduce these losses is an air core construction. In this configuration, the windings are not wound into slots in a lamination stack but instead are wound in a non-magnetic structure, which is located directly in the magnetic airgap. Although increased efficiency can be achieved with air core motors over conventional motors, further increased efficiencies would be desirable, especially for motors that are driven from modern variable speed electronic drives.